The Flotilla
Official Name: AeroKnights Incorporated Portable Military Headquarters Founded: 1899 Form of Government: Corporatocracy Head of State: Roy Falco Population Level: Low Society Structure: Naval Technological Level: Extreme ---- Background: The Flotilla is best described as a mobile nation under the hand of its creator, Roy Falco. Slowly churning through the wide oceans of Ereth, its population of gifted pilots and some of the world's best engineers make it both a corporate home for Falco's AeroKnights Inc. and the base of power on which the influence of his AeroKnights Armistice rests. (For more, see AeroKnights Inc..) Founding: In 1888, when twenty-three year old Roy Falco became inheritor to the AeroKnights legacy, his company consisted of several steamplane squadrons based throughout the world, generally hired by countries unable to maintain a full air force for specific missions. During the Melt especially, these missions were humanitarian in nature. At the advent of the Great War, Falco was quick to hire out his squads to the cash-rich but weapons-poor Messinan government for much more profitable mercenary work, and began to increase his company's monetary reserves. Within a few years AeroKnights had built up enough of a war chest to proceed with the next phase of Falco's plan: arms creation and sales. Negotiations with his home country, the United Bayronite Shires, failed despite several months of bribing most of the queen's advisers. He turned then to Nantes, neighbor and ally of the UBS; despite that alliance, the Nantian government was much more susceptible to Falco's promises of wealth, and were quick to strike a deal. In 1893 the agreement was finalized, and construction on the first AK weapons factory began. AK profits soared. Five years later, the war's various conflicts showed few signs of cooling, but the nations in play found themselves running low on resources with which to support their efforts. Falco, concerned about the inevitable profit crash an end to the war would bring, began to draw up the AeroKnights Armistice, believing nations would spend forever as long as they had time to recoup most or all of their losses. However, concerned that the Armistice would either be viewed skeptically as a Nantian ploy for influence, or that the Nantian leaders might attempt to ride his efforts to some sort of increased world power, Falco needed some sort of neutral ground from which to base his efforts. For a time several smaller countries were considered as a new company home, but Falco soon decided that any such territory had to be entirely AK-owned and operated. With land at a premium, the seas became the obvious choice, and thus the Flotilla began. Massive amounts of AK weapon production capacity (which had begun to go unused due to the creeping poverty of several warring nations) were supplanted in favor of the company's ship-building needs; one year later, in 1899, Falco declared the Flotilla ready to sail. Twenty ships strong, with several large enough to house their own steamplane squadrons, it set out to spread the Armistice around the globe and create the basis for the AeroKnights' enduring influence and power. Pre-Melt: N/A Melt: N/A Great War: N/A Post-War to Present: As the ARI has skyrocketed in popularity and AeroKnights Inc. grown flush with cash, so too has the Flotilla expanded. Within a year it had grown to fifty ships, seventy-five in two; a decade and a half later, it now sails seven hundred strong, including sixty-three plane carriers of various sizes and a few experimental underwater craft. More and more entrepreneurs speed out to the Flotilla, some to drop off immigrants looking for work, others to rope themselves onto the edge of the fleet and try to make their fortunes. Flotilla security makes random, unannounced tax collections, especially targeting those new and unproven "floaters"; anyone unable to put the prescribed amount of coin into security's hands has their ropes cut and is set adrift, under penalty of sinking if any attempt to reattach is made. Whether or not the Flotilla is near reachable land thus far appears irrelevant to the timing of the tax collections. If any danger exists to the fleet, it is in the power structure. Falco is the de facto king, with no one particularly suited to act as heir to the company; his oldest child is thirteen, and an artifical servant, Andros, serves as his primary lieutenant. At forty-eight, Falco remains healthy and a talented pilot, and his hiring of the Black Baroness as a sort of elite bodyguard has thus far ensured any ARI team that survives the gauntlet of competitors does not make it to his Flotilla to demand an exorbitant prize. But as the Baroness grows older, the chance she will fail at some point increases, and it is an open secret that Falco would rather challenge a champion team himself than make good on a reward that would strain the resources of his company. Should Falco someday challenge an ARI victor, none of the world's best safety protocols can guarantee he will survive. The odds of his sudden death in competition are long, but that non-zero chance remains a knife's edge on which the future of the Flotilla must balance. Category:The Nations of Ereth